RWBY: Remnants - Conception
Origins
RWBY: Remnants came about after the discontinuation of RWBY: Cherish. This was also hot on the heels off the finale of Volume 6 of RWBY. Negativity and fan dissent around the finale was at an all-time high during this time, and I was very close to dropping RWBY entirely. I took a month-long break away from all online interaction and RWBY.
During this time, I had to look back at what made me love RWBY as a series, and rediscovered what sort of joy I gained from making AUs for it. It was this time that I wiped the slate clean and went back to basics.
During this time, this mass of ideas went under the working title We Are The Hunt, and I focused solely on the main premise of the setting, along with Team RWBY themselves. These 3 images would form the foundation of my thoughts at the time.
Some of the lore detailed here would be switched around or changed by now - Fortuna and the 3 Gifts were much more of a prominent concept at the time, but not so much now. The idea of the 3 Curses was also shelved.
It all started with the drawing of RWBY’s moon (which was called Fortuna in one of my previous AUs, Cherish), with an eight-spoked scar in its shattered form. This was the key visual I used to set the AU apart from others - this was RWBY’s world through my own eyes and artstyle.
The Moon and the Fool
Around the time I was doing this, I came across the band Cold Kingdom and their album, The Moon and the Fool. I fell in love with their music immediately - it was very much in line with RWBY’s style of rock and evocative lyrics, and I could easily imagine a RWBY soundtrack composed by them, portraying a post-timeskip version of the show, or a version of the show that explored more of its darker themes.
While listening to this album and listening to its lyrics, my mind started imagining different RWBY characters and relationships corresponding to different songs in the album. Inspiration struck, which led me to create a series of images for the album and connect them to this new AU. This led to the RWBY: Moon and the Fool playlist on my YouYube channel. These 9 images not only were my way to express what I visualised while listening to the album; they were the visual basis for what would become RWBY: Remnants.
Trailer
I released each image in the RWBY: Moon and the Fool series in sequence, finally returning to RWBY after a month with renewed vigour and love for the series. A few months later, I announced the RWBY: Remnants fan project with an announcement trailer.
No god nor king to confine; No time nor fundaments to bound; No state nor flag to own; Just an existence roaming free
Like with anything, I didn’t just edit the trailer together to promote the AU - compiling its content and narration, along with choosing its song - Breed from LifeForce - was all a way for me to take the things I imagined and encapsulate them into a form I could see and hear, a form I could share with others. It was my own way of reminding myself what Remnants was about.
Making trailers, music videos and other forms of finished products for imaginary stories were the most effective way I could understand them, where just drawing and imagining it weren’t enough.
This is the detailed breakdown of how RWBY: Remnants was born!
